An apparition walks in the light
by akkeiton
Summary: Rumia's been seen as many things, she's been a villain, a hero, a simple passing foe for a certain shrine maiden and with, or even the boogeyman that the human village scares their kids with. but what if she was a part of that village, and they didn't even know it? AU oc, rating is more for just in case, and most likely for later on. title subject to change (suggestions welcome)


**A/N: To those coming from my other work, sorry for the delay (life's kinda been a bitch there). To those who are coming here for the first time, Welcome and thanks for giving this the time to look over it. As I always say at the end of my chapters, I always appreciate constructive criticism.**

 _ **fun fact: and please tell me if you know why, but my word processor software says this is 20,223 words for whatever reason.**_

"hi" normal speech

'hi' thoughts

 _"hi" words in writing_

 **"hi" not normal speech**

 _ **Ch 1: Gensokyo**_

 _The Eastern wonderland, the land of illusions, the land of the forgotten. Any one of these names are applicable, but none truly do justice to the land we call home. Gensokyo is the last remaining homestead for the spirits and gods of old, forgotten by mankind, to flee and take up a new domain._

 _With the decline of faith in the outside world, Youkai, gods, fairies and spirits of all forms faced a slow but certain extinction as the lack of belief sapped away the very life of the once great and revered, and sometimes feared, beings. With the future of all the worlds supernatural in jeopardy and looking bleak, many waited for the inevitable end of magic and gods. Yet the world would be shocked by the arrival of the Hakurei goddess and her disciple, the Hakurei shrine maiden._

 _Little is known as to what transpired, but Hakurei met with several of the great tribes of youkai, Lord Tenma of the Tengu, The four great Devas of the oni clans, and to the shock of many, the aging king and queen of the fae, Titania and Oberon. After speaking with the leaders of the three factions, Hakurei and her lone follower set out to find a land that would later become what we know now as our home, Gensokyo._

 _Happening upon a lone village that refused to abandon the old ways, and clung tightly to their faith in the gods, Hakurei approached the leader of the small village, barely containing a few hundred people. Speaking with the man who met her, an agreement was met that would bring about the world we all know today._

 _With all parties agreed, Hakurei gathered the youkai tribes together amongst the humans of the small village and began to weave a shell around the land, small at first but gradually growing and expanding to greater lengths until it encompassed the horizons as far as all could see. Falling in exhaustion, Hakurei gave a weak smile as her body faded and the shell surrounding the land began to disappear from view._

 _With the land sealed off, all tribes left the village and life continued normally for a time, but as youkai are spirits of myth, this includes both good and bad, and before long the youkai began harassing and attacking humans as their tales commanded they do. The humans, with what little they could use, fought back, but could do little more than drive away the youkai._

 _As the world around her seemed to fall apart, the shrine maiden, now alone with the disappearance of her patron, watched with eyes full of unshed tears. "this isn't what we all worked for" she mumbled to herself as she stood alone at the top of a small mountain range in view of the village. Looking at her shrine, she nodded solemnly and grabbed the shrine's gohei from where it lay forgotten and began the walk down the steps to her home._

 _All around her, the land reeked of chaos, yet she kept walking calmly until she reached the village, where she found yet another skirmish between the village's "youkai hunters" and several of the feral youkai that had been springing up around the land. "please forgive me for taking sides milady" She mumbled to herself as she stepped forward and with a flick of her wrist, launched a slip of paper with a needle through it, a sealing talisman designed to ward off and destroy spirits._

 _All around, the fighting stopped as the youkai watched one of their own be struck by the strange paper that all of them instinctively knew to fear. The youkai struck by the seal shook once before he became still as his body began to dissipate, no longer able to be held together with it's owners death._

 _The youkai turned on the shrine maiden, forgetting the humans they had been fighting, and charged the woman with an assortment of howls and cries._

 _The youkai hunters would later speak, not of the battle that ensued, but of the slaughter they had witnessed. The incident was spoken of by all in Gensokyo, as the Hakurei shrine maiden became the now known defender of the lone human village, And the number one enemy of every youkai in the lands surrounding it._

 _The Birth of Gensokyo and the Hakurei clan: Fin_

 _Hieda No Aichi GFD 003_

The teacher closed the book she had been reading as she glanced at the clock on the wall, before turning her attention back to her class. "Class dismissed" she called, as the roughly 15 children all rushed, as any child being dismissed from school at a young age does, to gather all their belongings before heading home for the day. Shaking her head with a fond smile, she reached under her desk and retrieved a strange hat, bearing runes around it's base with a small building shaped ornament all wrapped by a red ribbon, and placed it on her head of silver and blue hair before grabbing the book she had been reading from and turned to leave the schoolhouse.

Walking down the street from the school house, her path was stopped by several greetings of former students. Eventually her destination lay before her as she knocked on the door of the small manor that stood above all the other homes in the village she lived in. the door slid open as a young woman opened it for her and stood aside with little more than a polite smile and a bow.

Walking through the familiar home, she made her way to the study she knew her target would be found in. standing before the door she paused, "Akyuu, I'm coming in" she called, more as a courtesy than anything, before opening the door and entering the study.

"careful, Keine-chan, the rooms a bit messy" called the voice of a young girl, who could only be Akyuu. The now named Keine looked around and sweatdropped at the mass of scrolls and books that were scattered all around the room, and she thought she might have seen a few pieces of candy among them, 'this is a bit messy?' she mentally deadpanned as she carefully stepped around the books before coming upon the sight of a tangled mess of limbs wrapped in several sheets of paper with where their head would be covered by a lone book.

Sighing in exasperation, Keine reached over and plucked the book from the struggling girl's head, revealing a head of dark purple hair topped by a light pink flower shaped hairpin and a pair of similarly purple eyes. "A bit messy?" the schoolteacher said, causing the young girl to blush as she hung her head in shame. With a shake of her head and a chuckle, Keine set the book on the study table before she got to work helping untangle the scrolls from Akyuu's frame. Before long Akyuu was free, and she set to brushing the creases out of her clothes, a pair of yellow sleeves attached to a green vest with a shortened red Hakama skirt laced by a white obi.

"thanks Keine-chan" Akyuu said with a smile, all prior embarrassment forgotten as she sat at the table that had somehow been left uncovered by the apparent avalanche of text around them. Keine waved her thanks off as she slid the book towards Akyuu. "I should be thanking you, it's not everyday someone can read from the chronicles after all" Keine said as Akyuu snatched the book up before hurriedly looking over it for any damage. Satisfied the book was undamaged, Akyuu turned to continue the conversation, "well I wouldn't trust just anyone with the chronicles either you know" Akyuu said as she smiled.

Keine nodded, she knew that Akyuu would never trust just anyone with the life's work of her entire family. The fact that she was one of those few meant a lot to her, since despite being the school teacher and all around a rather friendly person, she actually had rather few close friends. Looking at the clock, she sighed before she stood, causing Akyuu to glance towards the clock as well. "I'd love to stay and talk…" she started, but was cut off by Akyuu holding up a hand with a smile on her face.

"it's fine Keine" the apparent child spoke with a tone far older than her appearance would imply. "you have a duty to the village, so there's nothing wrong with having to cut our time together short" Akyuu spoke with more wisdom than one would expect, seeing as to the naked eye she was at most 7, maybe 8.

Standing at the door, Keine turned and gave a nod before taking her leave. As she once more walked down the road towards her own home, the number of people on the roads had dropped along with the setting of the sun. before long, Keine came to a stop at her door before setting to cleaning the dirt from the day off, to make way for the blood she would sadly have to replace it with during the night.

Keine stepped into her room, having finished washing herself clean and opened her dresser to take a dress for the evening. Looking at the dresses, oddly separated very specifically on the two ends of the drawer, Keine retrieved one of the dresses from the right edge before closing the drawer. The separation of the dresses was one of Keine's less known quirks that people wouldn't really understand. As she slid the blue dress over her head and proceeded to secure it to her body, her mind flashed to the sight of the same fabric dyed by crimson in various places. As quickly as the image flashed in her mind, it was gone as she let out a regretful sigh. Glancing at herself in the mirror, she nodded after she was sure everything was placed right before reaching back over to the dresser and opening another drawer to retrieve a red ribbon she promptly set to tying around her chest.

Now dressed and ready, Keine walked out of her home, locking it as she left, and promptly set towards her third and final destination before her evening truly began. She walked until she reached the far edges of the village, before she simply opened the door with an annoyed look on her face. 'He didn't lock up Again' she thought as she made her way to the main bedroom of the small dwelling.

Sleeping on the mat in the corner of the room was a young man who, despite any attempts to say otherwise was wholly unremarkable. Keine walked over to him and without any warning, promptly knocked him over and was treated to the sputtering mess that was Aliya Akane rolling across the floor and face planting on the ground.

Shambling to his feet, still half asleep, Aliya looked around before seeing the sight of a smirking Keine standing next to where he had been sleeping not thirty seconds ago. "good morning" she said with a blatantly fake smile on her face as she walked back out of the room to wait for him to get ready.

Aliya sighed as he walked over to his dresser and promptly grabbed a change of clothes he began changing into before meeting his "guest" in the living room.

As Aliya was getting ready, Keine was looking around the house, shaking her head at various messes that, while not too bad, were still a mess that wouldn't take more than a few minutes to clean up. Looking at the food in his cupboards, she sighed 'still too lazy too cook I see' she thought as she eyed the limited selection of food, mostly snacks. She was interrupted by Aliya walking out of his room, now dressed in a plain brown pair of Hakama, and wearing a shirt with short sleeves 'probably bought that from Morichika' She thought annoyed as she raised an eyebrow at his lack of proper footwear, Again.

Aliya shrugged as he and Keine both made their way out the door of his home, but stopped as Keine glared at him. "what?" Aliya asked as he flinched back from the woman next to him, only met by her glancing at his door. Sighing he walked back and locked the door, mumbling about something while Keine shook her head. "can we go NOW? He asked as he got back, handing the key to Keine since he was terrible about keeping a hold of such things.

Smiling pleasantly, Keine nodded "yes we can, and since you're so eager, you can take the west patrol tonight" she said, causing Aliya to stop before glaring at her. They were currently on the east edge of the village, and Aliya was notoriously bad at flying. Aliya glared at her before starting the long walk to the other end of the village. "Aliya" Keine yelled before she tossed something to him. Unfortunately, the surprise, coupled with Aliya's inability to catch, resulted in the thrown apple smacking him in the face.

Aliya groaned as he bent down and picked up the apple, knowing that no harm was meant, some people just forgot he was awful at catching things. Waving off the apology that Keine was yelling he cleaned the dirt off the apple and took a bite before continuing his walk, lightly wincing at the stinging pain on his face. He knew Keine was just looking out for him, she had since he was little and was abandoned on the streets. He wasn't welcome in the orphanage. He clenched his fist as he thought about it, causing a small bit of what appeared to be ink to well up between his fingers. He didn't really blame them, after all who would want a child that might as well be a youkai. He knew that it was only by Keine and Akyuu's blessings that he was even still in the village, and not living out in the woods like some kind of savage.

A blonde girl with a black hat and dress covered in a white apron sneezed, causing the bottle she had just finished filling with mushrooms to violently explode.

Arriving at the edge of the village, Aliya looked around before he started walking around the village's borders, keeping an eye out for youkai, as Keine was no doubt doing, while flying to his annoyance, on the west end of the village. He would probably run into her at some point through the night.

Several uneventful hours had passed as Aliya walked along the village's borders, keeping an eye out for any youkai. Hearing noise from the woods nearby, he debated investigating, having heard the same sound several times throughout the night though he thought better of it. His mind changed when he heard the sound of a child, a young girl, scream from the same direction.

Rushing towards the noise, Aliya came upon possibly the most surreal sight in his life, as he saw the child he had heard, who he now knew to be a young youkai, being chased by another, who resembled the child such that they could only be father and daughter. He was shocked by the sight of what was clearly child abuse, since youkai giving birth was exceedingly rare in any circle of Gensokyo. The crazed look in the fathers eye as he mumbled about 'disgrace' and 'enemies' gave a clear sign that he intended to kill the child.

While standing around and letting a child, even a youkai, die left a bad taste in his mouth, Aliya had enough problems fitting in at the village as is, and being one of the 2 people defending the village was the only thing he was able to do. If word spread he helped even one youkai, regardless of circumstances, he was certain there would be a lot of backlash. When the girl actually started yelling for help, he mentally groaned as his made itself up and he stepped in-between the two youkai.

"I knew you were a traitor!" the crazed youkai yelled, seeing a human of all things come to his disgusting daughter's defense. Aliya glanced at the girl cowering away from both of the two men in front of her.

"honestly, I just felt bad letting a little girl yelling for help be killed by her father" Aliya said, and was surprised at the immediate glare and foaming at the mouth the girls father seemed to develop at the words 'her father'.

"that disgusting failure is no child of mine!" the youkai screamed in rage, before the light from the moon seemed to fade away slowly as darkness began to envelop the clearing.

Behind him, Aliya heard the steps of the girl running off, no doubt to hide. He got ready as the youkai was no doubt going to kill him first, since he was the closer of his two targets. A rasping noise hit his ear seconds before he was struck by the claws of the youkai from his side. Taking advantage of the surprise at him not only surviving, but staying standing from the attack, Aliya lashed out with his left hand, the ink from before bleeding into existence before extending into a rough imitation of a blade.

The youkai jumped back before the blade could carve into him, but he still received a cut along his chest for his troubles. Even in his madness he berated himself for taking an opponent so lightly, he knew humans don't normally travel alone at night, least of all outside their little village.

Looking back at the human, he took in the injury he had made, and was shocked that it seemed to be boiling as the same ink seemed to burst off of him, slowly healing the injury before his eyes. With a scoff, he decided it wasn't worth the trouble and quickly fled, leaving the girl to the human's mercy.

Aliya kept his guard up even as the light returned to the area, but was nonetheless shocked when he found the youkai gone. Lowering his guard, but not entirely dropping it, he looked around the clearing for any sign of the youkai, finding none, he began looking for the girl. Surprisingly he found her not far from the clearing they'd just been in, hiding in the hollow of a tree, looking every bit the vulnerable child she seemed to be. "hey" he called, but berated himself when she flinched at his voice.

"hey" he said, more softly this time, before reaching into the tree to pull her out. In hindsight this was one of his worst ideas, since she immediately began flailing about. "let me go!" she yelled, terrified as the human held onto her, "calm down so I don't drop you then!" Aliya yelled back as the girl was making the simple act of putting her down much more difficult, since he didn't feel like just dropping her onto a tree root or something equally hard.

His thoughts were interrupted by the feeling of teeth biting into his shoulder, as he was then forced to drop the child, who promptly was knocked out when her head connected with the tree that had formerly been her shelter. With a sigh he grabbed the child, and muttered to himself as he made his way back to the village.

"hopefully Keine will let me explain before the mod lynches me" he said as he carried the youkai in his arms back towards his home. In the back of his mind, he noticed he was seemingly carrying the child towards the rising sun, before also laughing at the thought.

The youkai girl was unaware as the course of her life changed, both for better and worse. She lay, now comfortably sleeping in the village of those who, in another life, would one day tell stories of her to terrify bad children.

Rumia slept in the village that, one day she would call her home.

 **A/N: this is an idea that came to me several MONTHS ago, and I would keep finding myself thinking on different little scenes from it. Not sure where the idea started, but it was kind of a "hey what if Rumia was raised by a human". I realize that she's older than her appearance suggests, but this is an AU in that regard. I also have thought on her and wondered about a few things, like why she is obviously hindered by the night if she is a darkness youkai, which I decided will be part of her father's issue with her, it's something that makes sense if you kind of squint I think.**

 **In regards to Aliya, I'm aiming for a character that can be FRIENDS with some of the characters, or outright hated by others, which is honestly kind of hard since I personally kind of suck with human interaction, which will probably show at a few(a lot) points. I'm not aiming for Aliya to be perfect, or even likeable to everyone, but I'm hoping at least a few people like him, since as I've stated, I plan for him to basically raise Rumia.**

 **Before anyone asks, I don't plan on pairing anyone with Aliya in this since I feel I wouldn't be able to make a pairing interesting.**

 **As always, thanks for taking the time to read this, and anyone with some tips for me I would really appreciate them.**

 **P.S. this is not beta read by anyone at this point, so please excuse bad grammar for now.**


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